Double Standards by the Numbers

So last week I attended a presentation given by some university students on the black woman. The point of the program was to discuss how black women went from being queens to being ho's and what should be done about it. The moderator of the event made a point that really should have been at the center of the discussion, that we should ask what is going on in the minds of men and women in black communities that they look at each other as pimps and ho's. Unfortunately this point was missed in the ensuing discussion about Buffy The Body, tight clothing and titles of porn films.

This was unfortunate because I saw a pronounced current of a need to control womens bodies. As if Buffy the Body posing in whatever she chooses to is THE problem or even A problem. One of the ironic points that came up was that one of the young women giving the presentation was wearing form fitting clothing and she's not a stick. I didn't have a problem with it. She didn't have a problem with it, but an audience member did find it contradictory that she was critiquing people in tight clothing while she herself was doing the same. Her explanation was that since her flash wasn't exposed it was acceptable. That's a pretty laughable point because it veers into a discussion of who is allowed to draw the line as to what is acceptable and what is not. But that's not really the point of this post.

The real problem I had with this discussion as well as the fallout from the Imus situation is the habit that many people, blacks included tend to stereotype black people based on the actions of a very few people. What is most startling about this situation is that other people are involved in the exact same behavior and are not called to account for their race for that behavior. Let me begin with "video ho's" as they are "affectionately" called.

There are supposedly 33 to 35 million black people in America. Lets say that 1/2 of them are women. If we take that assumption then we can say that there are around 17 million black females in the US. How many videos with black women shaking what their mammas gave them are there in current rotation. I'm not asking how often they are shown but how many of them are out. 100? 200? 1000?. How many women are in the videos? That is how many different women are in the total number of videos? 20? 50? 100? Assuming the largest number of unique black women in "booty shake" videos we could say that there are 100,000 unique black "booty shakers" in total max. That would be .5% of the total population of black women. So the question is why does 99.5% of black womanhood have to even explain themselves for the .5%? Why are we so fixated on the lives of these women? On the other hand there are girls gone wild videos, desperate housewives, and daytime soaps that show white women getting laid left right and center and yet no one even THINKS to either call these "actresses" ho's or to have various leaders explain how they don't reflect white womanhood in general. No it is assumed and expected that those white women who choose to show their breasts at spring break or whatever only reflect themselves (to an extent).

Since the young women in the presentation brought up porn, let me address that one. The largest population currently "starring" in porn are white women. But I will ask the question again; while the industry is a $2 billion one, how many actual "stars" are there. The fact of the matter is that there are not that many. In fact that 100,000 "booty shakers" that I estimated before is HUGE compared to the numbers of actual porn stars. While there are plenty of sexist language in pornographic "acting" and titles (as the young ladies read for us), a cursory glance across the board will let you know that the sexist language is not reserved for black women. Also a "study" of the vast internet porn marketplace will show that just about any and every racial group of women are "represented" (often at the "service" of a white male but that's another discussion). Again since the populations of black women involved in this industry is miniscule compared to the population of black women, why are black people being asked to explain themselves for the actions of a literal handful of people?

Lets look at Rap music. how many so called gangster rappers are there out there screamin' about bitches and ho's? 500? 1000? since the last time I listened to the radio I only heard the same 5-6 artists the over and over again I'm going to assume that I am being generous with that 500 number. so again out of the total population of black males in America (~18 million), how does .002% of the population (at most) suddenly represent black culture?

By the end of 2003 50-Cent' Debut album, Get Rich..., sold 6.5 million copies. If black people were the only ones purchasing the album then that would mean that 18% of the black population purchased the album. Much higher than the .05% doing the booty shaking, but still a particularly small population. But we know that black folk were not the only people purchasing "Get Rich". Knowing this, and knowing that Soundscan claims to not collect demographic data on the sales of music, I would venture that a smaller population of black folk, purchased the album (I'm one of the majority that did not). I would hazard to guess that even less black folk have purchased Snoop Dogg's individual albums. So again how is it that the entire population of black folk are being asked to explain the actions of the minority of the population especially a population that by and large does not control the means of production, distribution or broadcast o said population.

Ultimately, we should not even be trying to "explain" ourselves to other people. Rather we should turn the tables and ask them why they feel it is OK to judge black folk based on a small number of people. We should ask why, if they can "understand" that TV is not reality when it comes to whites and Asians, than why that "understanding" is suspended when it comes to black folk. But even more importantly let us not fall into the trap of being black woman body/sexuality police.

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